Ice Cube Confronts Bill Maher Over His Use Of The N-Word

For the most part, there's a blurred line when it comes to comedy.

Some people can get away with saying more controversial stuff because of who they are, whereas others may be taking a risk if they say something similar. One thing's for certain, though, and that's that there are particular words you cannot say.

We could list them all, but the most obvious is the N-word.

Talk show host Bill Maher used the word last week on his show Real Time, which understandably angered a few people. Most notably rapper and actor Ice Cube took offence to his use of the word, whereby he said: "Work in the fields? Senator, I'm a house n*gga," after jokingly being asked by Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska to work in fields.

He came under fire for saying the word, though controversy is something he's used to.

Ice Cube, rather admirably, went onto the show yesterday to talk about the incident. Given the rappers attitude, and being someone who is known as being a bit angry, people expected that he might have gone in on Maher, but in all honesty he handled it brilliantly.

"I accept your apology, but I think we need to get to the root of the psyche," he told Maher. "Because I think it's a lot of guys out there, who cross the line because they're a little too familiar or they think they're too familiar. Or its guys that y'know, might have a black girlfriend or two that made them some Kool-Aid every now and then. And they think they can cross the line."

"It's a word that has been used against us - it's like a knife, man. You can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It's been used as a weapon against us, by white people.

"We're not gonna let that happen again. It's not cool.

"That's our word now and you can't have it back."

Credit: HBO/ Real Time with Bill Maher

Cube has shown over the years that he is up for a laugh, but this is a different side to him, as this was no laughing matter.

The serenity in his voice is clear to see, and the wounds that cut black families deep for centuries are not yet heeled.

Maher apologised earlier in the show for his use of the word, admitting he did "a bad thing."

He told Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson, who "schooled" Maher on the word: "By the way, this happened once. A guy said a weird thing; I made a bad joke. Yes, it was wrong and I own up to that. But it's not like I made a career of this... It happened, and it was wrong. People make mistakes; we're all sinners."

Topics: Ice Cube

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.